Calling for players and taking requests!

Ok then – for those of you who are interested in RPG’s (involving rulebooks not explosives) the Wednesday night RPG group is looking to basically resurrect itself.

Our problem is a dearth of players and especially those whose presence can be relied upon.

There are currently four semi reliable attendees and if you include one as GM that means the group is just too small. The ideal number of players is six but we will cope with plus or minus one. Just turn up and chat and see if you want to join.

I have not said join in with what though. That basically is up for grabs and we had a chat in December. Operating on the assumption that I GM we discussed what was and was not open. The quick answer is I will run anything though with varying levels of competence.

Not recommended

1) Call of Cthulu – Sorry but horror is something that flops when run by me
2) Heroes unlimited – The system is just horrible
3) Traveller – Life is too short to spend on generating random planetary ecosystems
4) 4th Ed D&D – I loathe the system

Recommended

1) D&D specifically 3.5. This could be pathfinder if people prefer. Whilst some (Kevin) thought they would not want another generic fantasy it was agreed getting new players in was better the priority.
2) Rifts – Whilst we do have a lot of the books we stopped playing about 5 years ago so if you want something more recent that might cause problems. Having said that just look at a groaning bookshelf and appreciate the options included.
3) Maid the RPG. Included specifically to make my life hell. Do not choose this one. Seriously do not google it. Do not download the free PDF. Forget you read this.
4) Star Wars – I have run both D20 and west end games versions of the rules.

If you want one or the other we can talk.

Possible

All of these would be fun but if you want to do them I think they are better as one off games rather than campaigns.

1) Paranoia – We want to stay friends? Not too often with this one then
2) Doctor Who – Poor system, fun game but eventually too many logic holes about how time travel works cause problems
3) Amber – love this idea but I have a 50/50 rate with it so it’s a risk
4) Champions – A superhero game with balance? Ok if you can do the sums for a point buy game.
5) Sailor moon the RPG – why do you hate me?
6) Pendragon – specifically a campaign but probably more than I can do.
7) White wolf games – Vampire/werewolf/mage/faerie. My only xp in this genre is as a player but if you want I will give it a go.
8) Space 1889 – neo colonial martian steampunk. Ok then.
9) Shadowrun – Will have to dig up the rulebooks. If you want tech noir I prefer it to HOL.
10) Anything else – just bring along a suggestion and we will put it to a vote.

About the Author

Hi - primarily a role player and at the moment doing GM'ing mainly. Like most the majority of my gaming has been D&D though when I look at the number of games I have played the range is actually surprising.
Do have some figures but really not a wargamer. Do play board games as well owning quite a few but I have not bought any in ages.

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7 Comments

Barry Fee05/01/2015 at 04:44

Anyone commented John?

John McSorley14/01/2015 at 10:37

Hi Folks – tried to post this earlier but I seem to be a robot.

Ok to update. We had one extra person turn up (hi Paul) so we still have space.
It was decided that that we would do a shadowrun game. Due to some unfamiliarity with the rules not starting straight away.

Ok a few comments then. No deckers. At all. Whilst being not as familiar with the system as I should be this feels dangerous. Secondly only one combat specialist. Thirdly cybermage?

Ok – this means that there is space for two more players possibly three. a discussion was had and it was agreed that after a few (few is still to be defined) sessions I would let people rejig characters if they wished.

John McSorley28/01/2015 at 14:42

The Cybermage had an unspecified enemy and since he did not detail it I have taken the liberty of creating one for him. Please feel free to read about Social workers with attitude below!

Mothers Against Sinless Terrorism
MAST is an organisation started eighteen months ago in response to a personal tragedy. Kanice Winterbottom was just your average corp wage slave. House mortgage, crippling debt and no chance of progression but she was happy and safe.
Her husband was a security guard for Azteca and he decided to bring his children to work. No problems ever happened at the entertainment complex over and above moving on rowdy drunks and his stun baton and intimidating black glass visor was adequate. No reason for the “bring your kids to work day” to be an issue.
That day though was just a randomly bad day. Some thugs burst in and responded with grenades, rockets, spells and murder when apprehended. Geoff Winterbottom died in the opening salvo and so did all but one of his children. His youngest daughter Kerry survives. She may even stop the bedwetting soon.
Normal tragedy perhaps but Kanice decided that the gunfire was not the problem (?) but instead the SINless nature of the murderers made justice unlikely. For that reason she started MAST and runs campaigns to get people SIN. A small but growing presence on the streets they give out food to those down and outs who can provide a SIN.

MAST
The run was supposed to be simple. A high level exec liked low level vice and had got caught. In return for some R&D he got to keep his job and family. This was the third visit, we even paid for the skanks afterward which was why the meet was held in a bordello.
He didn’t want to pay any more. He brought a strike team with him to make the point. We were just shaping up to dis agree when some fracking witless d***head of a Mall cop guard brings his fracking kids with him and tries to arrest 13 heavily armed shadowrunners pointing guns at each other.
What happened next was pure Darwin man. Grenades just don’t care and the boy may have been in camo pyjamas but it ain’t body armour. Lots of metal flew and I did my share. Seven of us on that pickup. MAST keeps cropping up and Coyote droppings reckons MAST is not just about soup kitchens. He talked about being followed. Then he disappeared. Probably nothing. Laying low is part of the life. Probably nothing.
Mind you Coyote droppings is not the only old pal you cant find….Nah its nothing.

John McSorley29/01/2015 at 13:21

28/01/15

Ok then this is the second attempt. The first tried to do it as a dramatic first person retelling.
Let us quietly forget that attempt.

As this was the first session we spent some time getting to know the characters and what they could do. In at least some cases this involved being reminded that the characters needed names.
Areg – Troll mage (not a cyber mage just a mage who uses cybernetics. Ok that’s clear then)
Gylfi – Human Mage – high charisma and a ragbag of spells we are keen to find out what they do
Tovar – Human smuggler who pretends he’s an elf.
Some time was spent discussing Niel/Areg’s enemies. In addition to MAST he has a long standing grudge with a medical rival, the local BTL dealers think he owes them money and he has pissed off some humanis members.
On the other hand he has several useful contacts including a fixer and a ‘Mr Johnson’.

We opened the game with a few trial battles. Hobo with a shotgun died several grisly deaths wearing various levels of armour from naked to battle suit. Guns wise he did mostly stay with a shotgun but in the last battle he had an assault rifle. Everyone likes Hobo with a shotgun and by the last battle was rooting for him against the troll.
So to the game proper.
The party were informed that they were considered to be new to the local run scene and so they had been warned to expect bad jobs with low pay. Until a rep was built nobody serious would touch them. Despite this within a day or two Aregs fixer – an elf lady we decided to call Laura – got in touch with a job. She could not in all honesty recommend it but would arrange a meet at her place.
The party rolled up and after some tea and biscuits were introduced to a short twitching troll. Laura left and then the troll introduced himself as Bliver Olack and he was a decker whose normal crew were refusing to work with him. Whilst he did not say why this was so the party worried about his strange speech patterns, sudden incoherent statements and movement tics. The job was however simple. He had to break into the data stores of a company called bluebird solutions and find out how much food was bought in the last six months as well as sewage outflow details. He needed an escort into data storage, overwatch during the hack and safe extrication. For that they would get 1000 nuyen each. Gylfi (Claiming that he could do the face role) bargained up the fee to include expenses and a 500 nuyen bonus if they could avoid Olack getting into gun play.
Areg talked to Laura about had he been brain fried in the matrix and she informed he was stoned and had done his last run high as a kite nearly getting people killed. As far as she knew he was a stunningly good hacker when not high. He would need more than escort-nursemaiding the day before the run was also going to be needed.
The party said ok especially since as far as they could tell they were being overpaid.
The Bluebird building was found and Gylfi took first watch. It was a two storey warehouse with windows on the ground floor. Derelict buildings surround it and there is a 20 m clear area between the building and the chain link fence that marks the boundary. The concentration cost of remaining invisible was so high that he saw nothing useful and it took several tries to notice where the front door was. The dice modifiers for sustaining a spell had not been realised to be so high – a lesson for future games. All he could report was a normal cube farm with indeterminate numbers of people. Areg & Tovar rolled up and got very concerned – after several hours they eventually realised that the outside of the building was a smart skin view screen and they had essentially been watching a tv program.
The cost of the setup plus the real time sim of a normal working office on an ongoing basis was staggering and they retreated to decide what had they found.
A few conclusions were reached
1) They had no idea where the data store was
2) They had no idea what sort of security was there
3) They had no idea of the internal layout
4) They might not be overpaid
Olack was contacted and being high he thought the news that the run was ‘interesting’ and might be ‘exciting’ was good news. Areg & Tovar went back and tried to get whatever could be gleaned from looking at the façade. Two things were found. Firstly that there were data relay nodes outside the building running to the smart skin. Secondly that the security team had spotted them. They filmed the interior through the lobby doors as the security team came out, played dumb when questioned and then left.
Olack was contacted once more and he agreed that he could probably use the relays to get some sort of information but it did depend on what they were connected to what he could extract. Also he had to physically plug a cable into the box. Gylfi claimed he could make the cable invisible and once Tovar asked what lengths of cable were available a plan was formed.
Areg went to his fixer and bought a 100m data cable (much to everyone’s amusement it exists) whilst Tovar got a new vehicle. They drove out and with Olack in tow found a convenient hidey hole some 80 meters away from the building and Gylfi held the cable then willed himself invisible. Simple enough then he willed the cable invisible. That took longer and we started to see how dice modifiers accumulate. He then stumbled in almost straight line to the data box.
The saga of plugging in an invisible cable to a data point you cant see whilst simultaneously holding two active spells in your head and trying to be stealthy began. Had anything been visible it would have been hilarious though the occasional interludes of trying to find an invisible cable you just dropped would not have been as long. Eventually he got the cable plugged in and took a circuitous route back to the hidey hole where he lay down with a towel over his head.
Olack did his run and announced good news bad news. Good news he now had a floor layout and a location for central data storage. Bad news that was all he had, the run into the building was still on.
A few strange points about the plans were noticed but the most interesting was that there was no upper floor plans and no way from the ground floor to the second floor. The party decided to investigate this oddity.
Gylfi announced he would do it – shapechanged into a bird and then wondered round failing to notice much beyond the obvious. He really must put more into perception or find some way of lowering the penalties for holding a spell. The obvious was that there was a sunken roof with a lift, helipad, Zen garden and bar up there. He flew back down and reported to a confused party. It was agreed he should go back – lose the spell and wander round in human form including investigating the lift then report back. He went and did that whilst the rest of the party asked what bluebird solutions actually did. After some discussion it was decided that knowing that probably should have been the first question asked. Olack put a search out and said he would report back later.
Gylfi meanwhile flew back and changed into human form. Based on the lack of response to his wandering about the place seemed to not be alarmed. Everything just looked like a high end entertainment centre. Taking the lift down (only two buttons, up and down arrows) he found a restaurant, dance floor and a casino with lots of display screens. All empty. He left and reported back.
Tovar got excited and bought some equipment for cutting holes in a floor and then rented a helicopter. He announced a new plan. Go to the second floor via helipad, Cut a hole in the floor above the data facility, drop a cable in, Do the hack and then bugger off hopefully never meeting the security downstairs.
Olack reported he did not know what Bluebird did but he could report that the top floor was used for 3 nights a week starting in two days. Day 1 Security come in and stay all three days. Day 2 Caterers entertainers hostesses etc. come in leaving first thing day3. Day 3 Security does a sweep then leaves. Tovars plan had to happen tonight or in four days.
They all pile into the helicopter and fly there at 11.30pm. Everybody lands gets the kit out and goes to the casino. They measure out the dimensions, offset by a meter and then cut a hole in the floor. The relatively silent cutting equipment takes about an hour but they get through the floor. Gylfi is then hung by a cable and lowered in again holding the cable. Tovar operates the winch and Areg Brute forces the rope closer to the store. Gylfi fails his acrobatics but whilst swinging upside down plugs the cable in and is winched back up. Olack plugs in and then goes comatose mumbling to himself. A normal reaction to jacking in. Everybody stands around and just as they are congratulating themselves on a textbook run the door handle to the office below starts to turn…

To be continued.

John McSorley05/02/2015 at 14:58

04/02/15
Ok Firstly I screwed up names. Ares is the name of the human smuggler. Tovar is the name of the Ork Cybermage. Ooops. Reading last weeks you need to flip those names around which I concede is confusing and totally my poor note taking.
In the rules corrections part of this entry will mention two things.
1) I was using the contacts incorrectly last week. I rolled loyalty last week to see if they would talk to you, fair enough BUT I also needed to roll loyalty to see if they would offer equipment to you (presumably they keep the good stuff for good customers). This resulted in the laser floor cutter being too easily acquired.
2) This week an incident occurred where a group of people were sprayed with gunfire and most of them went down. This is because I applied the hits to the whole group (9 hits to each of the 5 members of the group) which was incorrect. Instead I should have applied a total of 9 hits to the group (ie Grunt 1 gets 2 hits leaving 7 to distribute amongst other 4 people in the group) which is distributed by choice but usually evenly (I might for example decide the guy at the front takes 5 hits and everybody else takes 1 hit – sucks to be the meat shield).
I have no intention of rewinding but if you try the same again just be careful.

Just for the record its worth mentioning that Gylfi is a Shamanistic tradition (norse of some type) whilst Tovar is a Hermetic mage.

And now to the game.
When the door handle rattled Gylfi Immediately zapped the door handle with an ice bolt attempting to cover it in ice. Whilst this was successful the barrier it formed was weak and the door was still opened with a routine strength check. The grunt (doing a routine security sweep) was still wondering why the door handle was cold when Tovar stunbolted him. Reeling from this Gylfi cast dominate and asked him to attack his comrades. Ares moves into position weapon ready. The grunt attacks his comrades but due to being weakened by the stunbolt misses. His comrades’ just look confused not yet able to see into the room so not understanding why this has happened. Next round Tovar delays & Gylfi dominates the next down the line. The rest of the battle is unobserved because the door to the room is slammed shut. What is obvious is an alarm goes off.
The party talk for a while and then set up overwatch on the door by Tovar & Gylfi whilst Ares watches the lift doors to ensure a team does not cut off the exit.
And that’s it for a few minutes. About four minutes later the door to the data room gets blown off its hinges. Tovar responds as he specified by firing Flash Bang grenades into the room and Gylfi readies to dominate. Nobody enters the room but 5 or 6 smoke grenades are rolled in eliminating visibility completely. A few seconds later Tovar using heat imaging sees someone rush in – he shoots but the figure dodges easily and then jumps through the hole into the room with them. It is a well muscled human wearing pyjamas. Before anyone can react he picks up Tovar and jumps back down the hole with him separating the party. Gylfi & Tovar both start bellowing for Ares to come and support them. Tovar lands prone with the semi naked human on top of him and his Assault rifle pointing away from him but towards the entrance to the room. He spies the survivors from team 1 and another team standing ready to deploy stun grenades and he sprays the group emptying his clip into them. The majority go down and the survivors are grievously wounded. Gylfi cannot see anything at all so just readies to cast at anything going through the hole. Ares approaches to see what everyone is panicking about. Tovar decide the human must be some sort of adept because he basically goes hand to hand with a troll and beats the shit out of him. Tovar is out of the fight in three rounds.
By this point Ares has got in position and turned on his thermal imagers. He does single shot kills on the two remaining grunts running to pull the data cable (they had been relying on the concealment from the smoke) and Gylfi hangs around feeling useless.
The smoke clears a little and Ares takes a shot at the Adept who dodges and jumps up again to take out the remaining party. Gylfi dominates him (it cant be this easy, I really must check the magic rules) instructing him to do various things. The Adept follows instructions but does not cooperate and eventually its considered easier to go down themselves and pull Tovar out dangling him from a line on the crane they used to move the floor.
Olack wakes up and is relieved that there were no problems and who is the semi naked guy? Leaving rude comments till later they pack up and go. Packing up takes another 6 minutes and then they goto the roof. Tovar jams the lift doors with a bench from the Zen Garden. Gylfi spends a few minutes messing with the adepts mind planting suggestions about taking blame then running.
Loading the helicopter takes another few minutes and everybody goes.
Job done. Olack makes payment and Tovar rests up.
Laura Contacts Tovar and says that due to Olack’s feedback she feels confident to offer other work to the group. She also tells him that an adept has been looking for work and specifically mentioned working with Tovar. She advises as well that if they do take work not having a decker is suicidal. Olack needs a team…
Three jobs are on offer and it is decided after some consideration to take the first job working for some Mexicans to extract something. They meet up with Mr Johnson at the Kitte Kat club – an extremely high end lap dancing bar. Ares stays outside in the vehicle whilst Tovar & Gylfi go to meet Mr Johnson who turns out to be a Texan Dwarf. Worse the job is more than described – he wants the party to stop ‘those goddamn kraut bastards muscling into my market’ by altering the plans of a prototype vehicle and changing a component part. Easy and by the way its got to be done within a fortnight. He offers 8k and insults the troll every time he talks.
An extremely irritated party agree to the job and we end the night there.

Barry Fee05/05/2015 at 11:24

Is this game still ongoing john?

Phalanx 2018

We are proud to announce the date of the Next Phalanx Show will be Saturday, June 16th, 2018.

To be held at the usual venue of Sutton Community Leisure Centre, Elton Head Road, Saint Helens, Merseyside, WA9 5AU.

Events Booked in the Next 7 Days

We are running an ongoing RuneQuest Campaign set in Sartar. The Empire of the Wyrms Friends are no more and the Lunar Peace does not sit well with the Population The Lunar Peace These are the terms negotiated in 1613 by Redbird on behalf of Temertain for settlement of hostilities between the Imperial forces of the great Red Moon Goddess and the rebellious tribes of the lands of Sartar: • The Provincial Army is allowed to take control of the cities of Boldhome, Duck Point, Wilmskirk, Jonstown, Swenstown, Aldachur and Alone. • Plunder and standards taken from the Lunar army at the Battle of Hofstaring’s Flood shall be returned to the Empire. • Sartar is recognized as an independent client kingdom of the Empire. The King of Sartar agrees to accept a Lunar representative as an advisor. • The rebellious tribes of the Kingdom agree to a tribute of one cow per free adult for the first year and half that each year in perpetuity. • Sacrifices to and worship of the Rebel God Orlanth is forbidden. • The person and property of Lunar citizens shall be inviolate. • Temertain son of Jotisan of the line of Sartar is recognized as the legitimate King of Sartar by one and all. • This treaty is valid for as long as there is a King in Sartar and a Moon in the Sky. May whoever breaks this treaty suffer the loss of the King or their Moon and their lives forfeit. War Clouds are building, Evil Cults from the North of Dragon Pass are pushing South under the Sky of Lunar Ignorance and Tolerance. Snake Pipe Hollows chaotic denizens are getting clever and their plans are spreading South and west turning innocent tribes into mindless shells of Disease and Corruption. It is into this story our Hero’s emerge, From years of Service in Tribal and Mercenary organizations, The Sons of Humakt and their Allies are forging a fellowship that can stand up to the Lunar occupation throw back the spread of the Dark Cults and ultimately bring about Change to the heart of the Lands of Sartar!

Regular Boardgame and or RPG Session Each Week We play a range of board games from 4-6 players mixed styles mixed complexity. We also add in some roleplaying games to the equation from time to time as well as Wargames.

We are running an ongoing RuneQuest Campaign set in Sartar. The Empire of the Wyrms Friends are no more and the Lunar Peace does not sit well with the Population The Lunar Peace These are the terms negotiated in 1613 by Redbird on behalf of Temertain for settlement of hostilities between the Imperial forces of the great Red Moon Goddess and the rebellious tribes of the lands of Sartar: • The Provincial Army is allowed to take control of the cities of Boldhome, Duck Point, Wilmskirk, Jonstown, Swenstown, Aldachur and Alone. • Plunder and standards taken from the Lunar army at the Battle of Hofstaring’s Flood shall be returned to the Empire. • Sartar is recognized as an independent client kingdom of the Empire. The King of Sartar agrees to accept a Lunar representative as an advisor. • The rebellious tribes of the Kingdom agree to a tribute of one cow per free adult for the first year and half that each year in perpetuity. • Sacrifices to and worship of the Rebel God Orlanth is forbidden. • The person and property of Lunar citizens shall be inviolate. • Temertain son of Jotisan of the line of Sartar is recognized as the legitimate King of Sartar by one and all. • This treaty is valid for as long as there is a King in Sartar and a Moon in the Sky. May whoever breaks this treaty suffer the loss of the King or their Moon and their lives forfeit. War Clouds are building, Evil Cults from the North of Dragon Pass are pushing South under the Sky of Lunar Ignorance and Tolerance. Snake Pipe Hollows chaotic denizens are getting clever and their plans are spreading South and west turning innocent tribes into mindless shells of Disease and Corruption. It is into this story our Hero’s emerge, From years of Service in Tribal and Mercenary organizations, The Sons of Humakt and their Allies are forging a fellowship that can stand up to the Lunar occupation throw back the spread of the Dark Cults and ultimately bring about Change to the heart of the Lands of Sartar!